Wrong fix suggested by one shop fixed cheaper and right by another

[DIESELDAN]

Brought my 03 superduty with a 7.3 diesel into a diesel shop in brainerd for repair. They told me it needed a new injector for $850 seemed high to me so I called another shop and they said they could do it for $570, but he said the injector probablly was'nt bad and asked if they tested for a bad under the valve cover wire harness? [Which is what the problem ended up being and was conciderably cheeper to fix] I asked the other shop, when I went to get my truck about the harness and the lady said kind of smartly "hes been a diesel mechanic for 25 years I think he knows what he's doing." What should I do now call the first shop and at least tell them they were wrong, it still cost me $125 for them to give me the wrong diagnosis. I'm glad I went to the other shop because I'm sure it probally would have cost me $850 and the truck would'nt have run any better if I would have left it at the first one, Then they would have said you have several problems and would just kept racking up the charges until they found the problem, beware. DIESELDAN

[Sonicrunch]

I've never had any satisfactory recourse involving an incorrect diagnosis.

It's just the nature of the beast.

[Valv]

I have the same issue with my '06 Dodge 2500, the valve cover gasket with injectors harness is bad and it's running at 3 cylinders.

I would just get the truck and have it repaired at the better place, you will loose your diagnostic fee, but a scan on any truck anymore has a flat rate of $ 120 / $ 150 just to hook it up and read the diagnostics.

I had a place saying almost same thing to me, they were expert for 20 years, I replied I was for 40. They caught the sarcasm and left it alone.

[Macgyver55]

Not to take sides, but depending on the situation, diagnosing the difference between a bad injector and a bad harness can be difficult sometimes. Its not quite so hard to find a "shorted" injector, but one that is "open' is somewhat tougher to distinguish between that and the harness. Until removing the harness and actually testing it there is no way to determine if that or the injector is definitely the problem.

I guess what I am saying is its entirely possible they had no intention of misleading you, but rather took their best guess as to what the problem was based on past history of other similar vehicles. I'd certainly hope that was the case here, but unfortunately it isn't always so, and it breeds distrust for the rest of us.

I personally welcome it if/when someone calls me back to let me know if I was wrong (or correct) so I can use that experience for future diagnosis. Give them a call back without rubbing their nose in it and tell them you had a second opinion and it turned out to be the harness. If they are rude, well you know not to go there or send anyone there in the future, if not, give them the benefit of the doubt.

[JOHNBIGDOG]

I would agree with Macgyver, sometimes its better to prepare for the worse, ant find out its something less than bet on the better and find out it was the worse. Its a shame they didn't take the time to pull the valve cover and check it quick... sorry to hear

[SkunkedAgain]

I haven't fixed cars/trucks for 20 years or more, but what I do know from my limited repair knowledge is that it's not an exact science and it can be tricky. While it's understandable to be upset when it's possible $$ leaving your wallet, I think folks always need to keep in mind that a good shop is trying to do their best to fix the problem and keep you as a customer.

IMO - the only reason that you should be upset is if you feel that the first shop was INTENTIONALLY trying to rip you off. If not, chalk it up as a mistake and cut them some slack. I make mistakes too. We all do, even your doctor!

[Scott K]

Under valve cover harnesses are pretty common on the 7.3's, and the only way to tell if its the harness, or a bad injector is to remove the valve cover, and see if the harness if spread away from the valve cover gasket.

If I was diagnosing the job, I would have sold you the diag, told you it will either be one of two things, but I would need to remove the valve cover to know forsure. One repair would be XXX$, the other XX$, then I would have also told you that on occasions when the harness does separate, it can cause that driver in the IDM to go bad, and you may end up back down the road with a miss in the near future. Just to give you the heads up, incase it does go bad, and you think I messed up on the repair because it started to miss a couple hundred miles down the road again.

Any Ford diesel mechanic would have known about the under valve cover harness problems, and more then likely just quoted you the higher estimate, then if it was the harness, then they would have just told you, "good news, we fixed it for a lot cheaper then the quote".

There are problems with each way to address the customer with the repair. My way, some customers will tell you, that I am paying you $100 for diag, you should know exactly what it is, before you tear it apart. Otherwise you really arent diagnosing it, and you are just guessing. This is my preference, I would rather the customer know the truth.

The other option the one of quoting high, to cover the repair no matter what they find, works, then you are the good guy when you do it for cheaper. But in the case as you ran into, you can get burned that way sometimes when the customer brings it to another place.

The other option is my least favorite, and unfortunately many shops do it this way, they quote the least costly option, then once they are into it, call you up and say, well after we got into the job, we found this and this, and it will be a lot more then the original quote. They do this to not scare off people, and more then likely once the vehicle is torn apart, they arent going to say no to the higher price, or upgrade, being you already have it torn apart.

For an example, a car comes in for an oil change, you find the tires are very bad, and it needs a lot of new front end parts. So you could go up and say, while I was doing your oil change, we found you need $800 worth of tires, $1000 worth of front end parts, and an alignment $50, and your brakes are down to nothing, so another $500. So you go in expecting to spend $30 for an oil change, then they try selling you $2400 worth of work, and you say no way! So what they do is say, we noticed your vehicle is in need of some tires, we urge you to get them soon, they are in really bad shape. They are $800. So once you say ok, lets do them, they start pulling the tires off and mounting them, then come up ad say, since you are getting new tires, and your old ones were worn uneven, we recommend you protect your new tires with an alignment, so then you say sure, thats a good idea, only $50. So they mount the tires, put it on the alignment rack, then bring you out and show you how loose your front end parts are, and if you dont replace them, it will wear out your new tire in no time. So now you are stuck with wearing out your new tires you just spent $800 on, or spend $1000 on new front end parts to protect them. So now you figure you have to, then while they are doing the front end work, they come up and say, we just noticed your brakes are down to nothing, do you want us to get them fixed up for you since we are into it this deep, and you agree. This is a common practice in many shops, I dont like it. I prefer to be upfront with them in the beginning, and let them know from the start.

[SkunkedAgain]

4wanderingeyes, if I didn't have a guy just like you here in Richfield, I think that I would be driving my vehicles out to Henderson to have you work on them!

As a customer, I appreciate knowing the options up front. That's what hooked me into my current repair guy. He presented all of the options, so I didn't make the repairs. I changed cars and now he gets all of the business from that car. He missed out on the short term $$ but in the end gets my long term $$.

It sounds like you're a standup guy.

[ChuckN]

It certainly is a situation nobody wants to be in. It doesn't help and there isn't any recourse to these charges. Maybe dispute it on credit card...I've considered it.

I had new tires installed on my '00 7.3L F250 last winter, and ever since the new tires went on (with a new alignment) something wasn't right as there was a heavy pull to the right. Mechanic said it may be the tires on the front, he never mentioned any issues with the front end during the alignment. I drove it for awhile and last summer I noticed a bad shock on the front, and tire wear like I couldn't believe. I replaced the front shocks, rotated the two front tires and now it doesn't pull to the right at all, drives great.

I still felt uneasy, so I had a second opinion on the alignment done by a big chain tire store, paid $100 for them to tell me the whole front end of the truck is bad..ball joints, tie rods, etc. I requested a full quote with parts and timeframe to do the job and low and behold....never heard from them again! I would never let them touch my truck anyways. It sounded really fishy.

I then took the truck to a third mechanic, a trusted mechanic I should have gone to first and he said everything was great. (the whole front end/ball joints/etc. were replaced 4 years/ 40K miles ago when I bought it).

I still don't know if I have issues with the front end, but my tires certainly aren't wearing evenly. I'm just watching them at this point because the bad shock really cupped one, and I still feel one is faulty giving the truck enormous pull.

[Macgyver55]

Chuck, our tire guys have always told me once a tire starts a wear pattern it usually wont stop. Frequent rotating may slow it down some but probably not stop the wear pattern that has started.

Its possible that everything alignment-wise is ok but keeping an eye on it is still a good idea.

[ChuckN]

I would agree, Bud. So far that's what I am observing.

I may rotate the rear to the front and see if there's any sign of strange wear, then I'll know. Otherwise, I may just have to buy 2 new front ones.

I never had any uneven wear on the old tires 10 months ago, and the truck is hardly driven. One blow out on the front driver's side (a horribly scary, almost head-on crash experience) made me get new tires and a wheel alignment after that incident.